Note: Our old site experienced some problems. This is a temporary way to continue providing these resources. The search function and login are not available. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Welcome to our website!
We hope your find the resources on this site helpful. You will see that there is a login link -- that is primarily for people in our organization and contains some internal things. Please send us your feedback through the link at the bottom of the page.
Quick Links for "School" ProfilesSchool ProfilesHome Study Programs

Helping Children Deal with Traumatic Events

These suggestions and ideas related to debriefing children will be made with the assumption that should trauma be involved, those preparing to debrief children are seeking experienced or licensed help in doing so. Even when the trauma would not seem to be something that involved children personally or overtly, debriefing with children when parents or siblings are affected by trauma demands special experience in both trauma and experience with the age of the children being debriefed or included in family debriefing.

Debriefing offers a structure for listening and talking to a traumatized child. It opens the door for the child to begin to share with you. It helps you to discover how the child feels, and it provides an opportunity for the child to understand what happened. It usually makes the child feel stronger and less vulnerable.

What Debriefing Does

Assists the child in “venting” their thoughts and feelings

Helps the child develop a more complete understanding of what happened

Normalizes the child’s responses

Teaches the child appropriate coping skills

Assists the child in adjusting to the trauma

Debriefing will not heal emotional wounds of a trauma overnight, but it will help speed the healing and recovery rate for the child.

STEP 1: Fact Phase

Have the child share the story through words, pictures, play, role-play, or writing